


love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged cupid painted blind

by afteriwake



Series: Schoolyard Crush [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-15
Updated: 2012-10-15
Packaged: 2017-11-16 08:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/537486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been a very long time since he had a crush.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged cupid painted blind

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **ichihimefanfest** , as part of the “Schoolyard Crush” trilogy. This one was written for prompt #9 (Ichigo has a crush on a teacher). Title is a quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.

He hadn't had a crush in so long he forgot what they were like. Sure, he was around attractive girls. He'd have been stupid not to realize Orihime was pretty, but she was a friend. She was someone he needed to protect. Besides, he'd been unable to stop the whole Hueco Mundo disaster from happening. She may _say_ she was okay, but he was pretty sure somewhere deep down she knew it was all his fault. He certainly knew it was. If she'd never gotten tangled up in his life fighting Hollows, Aizen would never have known about her.

Most people thought he and Tatsuki were an item, at least with a very twisted relationship considering they were usually volleying insults at each other in public. In private they got along well, and he knew some people knew that the insults were just a way of showing they cared, so most people assumed the whole insulting thing was a front to make everyone think they weren't dating. Tatsuki cracked up every time someone brought it up to her, and he just grunted and glared. Both tactics seemed to work, because if people still thought they were dating they kept it to themselves.

He'd expected, eventually, he'd get a crush, but he hadn't expected it to be a teacher, and he _certainly_ hadn't expected her to be American. But Cook-sensei was not only beautiful, but she was a Shakespeare fanatic _and_ spoke flawless Japanese, making it easy for her to jump between one language and another during class. And she didn't think he was a delinquent, either, probably because she hadn't grown up with that stereotype. He was smitten, all right. As were most of the other guys in the class. 

He worked his hardest, bringing his grades up dramatically in an attempt to impress her. But no matter what he did, he felt it wasn't enough. After all, she was older, probably wanted older guys, and he was just a kid. Half the time he was smitten, the other half of the time he was trying to talk himself out of the crush. It was almost like his emotions were on a yo-yo. And he didn't know what to do. Going to his father was a bad idea, going to Tatsuki was just _asking_ for trouble, and none of the guys he was friends with would understand.

So that only left one person. He didn't think she would laugh at him, and he hoped getting a female's perspective would help. So, in the end, he pulled Orihime aside and offered to walk her home, just to talk. She got so excited, but when they began to talk he noticed her bubbly personality dimmed a bit. Then, after a moment, she smiled again, and said something surprising. “I know how you feel,” she replied. “Let me tell you a story...”


End file.
